Tag: Announced

HIGHLIGHTS

New iMac models announced at starting price of $1,099

New iMac models available from Monday

Apple gave sneak peek of the iMac Pro

Apple at its WWDC 2017 keynote, as expected, announced an update to its iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air lineup of devices. The company also teased its all-new iMac Pro – the most powerful Mac ever – which will be available starting December this year.

John Ternus, Apple’s Vice President of Hardware Engineering, announced the latest generation of iMac models with prices starting at $1,099 for the 21.5-inch iMac, 21.5-inch iMac Retina 4K at $1,099, while iMac Retina 5K 27-inch starts at $1,799. The new iMac lineup will be available with macOS High Sierra coming this fall. Apple has announced that the new iMac will be available to order starting Monday via apple.com, and will be available to buy in Apple Stores starting on Wednesday.

The Cupertino-based giant announced that the new iMac will sport the “best Mac display ever” which is 43 percent brighter at 500 nits and with support for one billion colours. Ternus also confirmed that the entire lineup will ship with Intel’s seventh-generation Kaby Lake processors.

The updated iMac features Kaby Lake processors up to 4.2GHz with Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz and supports up to twice the memory as the previous generation. Fusion Drives are now standard on all 27-inch configurations and the top-end 21.5-inch iMac. Ternus added that the SSD storage options are now up to 50 percent faster, and iMac comes with Thunderbolt 3.

The new iMac lineup will have two USB Type-C connectors with Thunderbolt. Apple also confirmed that the entry level iMac models will have the Intel Iris Plus Graphics which is up to 80 percent faster graphics than the previous generation.

The new 21.5-inch iMac Retina 4K will come with AMD Radeon Pro 555 and Radeon Pro 560 graphics. Ternus claimed that the new system is up to 3 times faster than the previous generation in terms of graphics, while the 27-inch will be 50 percent faster.

The company also announced an update to its 27-inch iMac models which Apple said is the “most popular desktop for pro customers.”

The company also offered a sneak peek at the iMac Pro which is marketed as new “workstation-class product line designed for pro users with the most demanding workflows.” Apple is calling it the most power Mac ever. The all-new iMac Pro sports 27-inch Retina 5K display with up to 18-core Xeon processors and up to 22 Teraflops of graphics computation. The all-new iMac Pro will come in new Space Grey enclosure.

The iMac Pro is scheduled to ship in December starting at $4,999 in the US. The company also detailed a new thermal architecture that is said to give it 80 percent more cooling capacity in the regular iMac design. It ships with the new AMD Radeon Pro Vega GPU with 16GB of HBM2 memory. It supports up to 4TB SSD, 128GB ECC RAM, four Thunderbolt 3 ports, and 10Gb Ethernet – a first for Mac.

Giving a sneak peek of the new iMac Pro, Ternus said, “We’re thrilled to give developers and customers a sneak peek at iMac Pro. This will be our fastest and most powerful Mac ever, which brings workstation-class computing to iMac for the first time. We reengineered the whole system and designed an entirely new thermal architecture to pack extraordinary performance into the elegant, quiet iMac enclosure our customers love iMac Pro is a huge step forward and there’s never been anything like it.”

HIGHLIGHTS

Doom VR is announced as Doom VFR

Fallout 4 VR will be out in October

No release date for Doom VFR has been given

Doom is getting a VR version. Called Doom VFR it was announced by Bethesda at its E3 2017 conference. In addition to this, the company also revealed Fallout 4 in VR, dubbed as the first open-world game completely made in VR.

Doom VFR will be available on PS VR and HTC Vive. Fallout 4 VR will be available for HTC Vive in October. No date for Doom VFR has been given just yet.

This marks Bethesda first attempt at bringing its IPs to VR. With Fallout and Doom, it seems that VR will get a shot in the arm it so drastically needs.

For what its worth we found Doom to be one of the better games of 2016. Bethesda had the right idea in mind when it brought back Wolfenstein, and reviving Doom back after a prolonged spell in development hell is just as welcome. The game offers more than enough for fans to sink their teeth into, while it injects some purely-optional new ideas to keep in-step with modern games.

How Fallout 4’s dystopia translates to VR would be interesting. With an immersive world, open-ended gameplay options, and so much to do, Fallout 4 is well worth the price of entry. Chances are, you’ll be spending a lot of time in Boston. We know we have and will be in the months to come.

HIGHLIGHTS

10.5-inch iPad Pro price in India starts at Rs. 52,900

New iMac models start at Rs. 90,900; Retina models at Rs. 1,07,900

MacBook Air price in India is unchanged

Gadgets 360 has learnt the India pricing of the new products unveiled at WWDC on Monday. Apple is in the process of updating its India website and some of the prices are already on the respective product pages as well. Let’s take a detailed look at the India price of the new iPad Pro models, and the MacBook Air, MacBook, MacBook Pro, and iMac updates that were announced in San Jose.

iPad Pro price in India

The new 10.5-inch iPad Pro starts at Rs. 52,900 for the 64GB Wi-Fi model, Rs. 60,900 for 256GB, and Rs. 76,900 for the 512GB model. The premium for Wi+Fi cellular variants is Rs. 11,000 for each storage capacity, so the models cost Rs. 63,900 (64GB), Rs. 71,900 (256GB), and Rs. 87,900 (512GB).

Pricing for the two entry-level Wi-Fi 12.9-inch iPad Pro models remains unchanged, though you get double the storage. The top-end variants have seen some price bumps, though you are getting a lot more storage in return. The Wi-Fi-only iPad Pro 12.9-inch is priced at Rs. 65,900 (64GB), Rs. 73,900 (256GB), and Rs. 89,900 (512GB), while there’s a premium of Rs. 11,000 for the corresponding Wi+Cellular models.

MacBook Air price in India

Price for the MacBook Air – which receive a minor speed bump, from 1.6GHz Core i5 Broadwell chip (Turbo Boost up to 2.7GHz) to 1.8GHz Core i5 Broadwell chip (Turbo Boost up to 2.9GHz) – remains unchanged at Rs. 80,900 and Rs. 96,900 for the 128GB and 256GB SSD storage variants respectively.

MacBook Pro price in India

The 13-inch MacBook Pro without TouchBar now starts at Rs. 1,09,900 instead of Rs. 1,29,900, though you get only 128GB SSD storage compared to 256GB earlier. The 256GB variant will set you back by Rs. 1,26,900. The 13-inch MacBook Pro TouchBar models are cheaper by Rs. 1,000 each at Rs. 1,54,900 and Rs. 1,71,900 respectively for the 256GB and 512GB SSD storage variants.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar still starts at Rs. 2,05,900, while at Rs. 2,39,900, the top-end model is now cheaper by Rs. 2,000. All MacBook Pro models have been updated with Intel Kaby Lake chips.

MacBook price in India

The 12” MacBook – the one with a single USB Type-C port – has received minor price cuts as well and is now priced at Rs. 1,09,900 for the 256GB SSD variant (Rs. 1,12,900 earlier) and Rs. 1,34,900 for the 512GB SSD model (Rs. 1,39,900 earlier). The MacBook too has received Kaby Lake processors, 50 percent faster SSDs, and the same keyboard that shipped in the MacBook Pros last year.

iMac price in India

The iMac range now starts at Rs. 90,900 for the 21.5-inch non-Retina model, a price drop of Rs. 1,000, though you do get newer internals. The 21.5-inch Retina iMac with the newer display and updated innards now starts at Rs. 1,07,900, compared to Rs. 1,23,900 for the earlier starting price of the Retina iMac range.

The new entry-level Retina iMac comes with 1TB of 5400rpm hard disk, but by spending an extra Rs. 17,000 i.e. Rs. 1,24,900 you can get a 1TB Fusion Drive – Apple’s flash storage + HDD hybrid – and a faster processor, as well as a better graphics card.

The 27.5-inch Retina iMac starting price is unchanged at Rs. 1,48,900, while the two higher-end configurations are expensive by Rs. 1,000 each at Rs. 1,65,900, and Rs. 1,89,900 respectively. Of course all of these models have the newer display, better processors, Fusion Drive, and new graphics cards as well.

Nvidia has announced its new GeForce GTX 1060 GPU, aimed at mainstream gamers. Graphics cards based on the new GTX 1060 will be available worldwide from partner companies including Asus, MSI, Gigabyte and Zotac on July 19. There will be only one configuration featuring 6GB of GDDR5 RAM. Pricing in the US is $249 (approximately Rs. 16,858) but the official price in India has not been announced yet. We can expect it to be considerably higher to account for import duties and distribution costs.

The new GeForce GTX 1060 comes hot on the heels of Nvidia’s high-end GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 GPUs, and seems to be aimed at the same market segment as AMD’s new Radeon RX 480. The timing of the launch, and of earlier leaks, could be a direct shot at AMD. Interestingly, the Radeon RX 480 with 4GB of RAM is priced $50 lower in the USA at $199, but AMD’s higher overheads give Nvidia a decisive advantage here in India. However, the GTX 1060’s price could make it less popular than its predecessor, the GTX 960 which sells for under Rs. 18,000.

Gamers will benefit from the same Pascal architecture that the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 are based on, although the actual GPU is a smaller unit codenamed GP106, rather than the GP104 which the other two are based on. The GTX 1060 has 1280 programmable graphics processing units and can run at up to 1.7GHz when under full load. The 6GB of GDDR5 memory has a 192-bit pathway to the GPU, resulting in memory bandwidth of up to 8Gbps. The maximum power draw is rated at 120W, and cards featuring Nvidia’s reference cooler will have a single 6-pin PCIe connector.

Most notably, the GeForce GTX 1060 dispenses with SLI connectors altogether. Nvidia had de-emphasised SLI with the launch of the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, first saying enthusiasts would need a special key to unlock it, and then limiting it to two cards down from four. Now, the company says its research shows that only a miniscule number of people ever used SLI on mid-range cards, and it believes that one GTX 1060 delivers enough performance on its own.

Nvidia will offer a Founders’ Edition version of the GTX 1060, but it has a simple plastic shroud and blower fan rather than the elaborate metal vapour-chamber cooler that gives the GTX 1080 Founders’ Edition its premium pricing. It will be available only in France, Germany and the UK, directly through Nvidia’s online store, priced at EUR 319/GBP 275. Partner companies will offer GTX 1060 cards with their own custom cooler and PCB designs, not Founders’ Editions with their own branding, as is the case with the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070.

GTX 1060 cards will have three DisplayPort 1.4 outputs as well as a single HDMI 2.0b port and one dual-link DVI-D port by default. Partners might change this arrangement around on their custom designs, with extra HDMI outputs most likely replacing DisplayPort to allow users to connect a VR headset and monitor at the same time.

Nvidia’s new Pascal architecture, which underpins the entire GeForce 10-series, is the company’s first on a new 16nm process, which results in greatly improved performance and lower power consumption than previous offerings. Pascal has also been designed to enable simultaneous multi-projection which allows for multiple perspectives of the same scene to be rendered in one pipeline pass, greatly improving performance for VR and multi-monitor experiences. SMP support is built into the Unreal 4 and Unity engines, and will be coming to over 30 titles including Obduction, Raw Data, Unreal Tournament, and Adr1ft.

The company also points out that the Ansel screen capture feature which debuted with the more expensive cards is also fully supported, and will debut in July with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst.

Nvidia promises equal or greater performance from the GTX 1060 as from last year’s GeForce GTX 980, plus significant overclocking potential. Stay tuned for a full review once these cards are available in the market.